Tire Maintenance

Tires have a tendency to wear unevenly due to many different factors, including terrain, temperature and driver habits. Performing a periodic tire rotation will help to balance out the wear on your tires, which may prevent many possible unwanted problems. Pattern wear can develop from turning the same tire in the same direction for thousands of miles. By changing the tires, often performed by moving the front tires to the back of the vehicle and vice versa, any pattern wear can be avoided. Similarly, front-wheel drive vehicles increase the burden on the front tires, due to the fact that they require the added duty of driving the vehicle, as well as steering it. Swapping these with the back tires at regular intervals helps to spread out wear. Including the spare tires in the rotation can increase the life of all tires by up to 20%.

When tire rotation is avoided for too long, the performance, riding comfort and stability of your vehicle can be compromised. Whichever tires do most of the handling on your vehicle can be swapped out, giving fresh tread for the task of stopping on wet roads and gripping in the snow. Also, when tires are unequally stressed due to differences in wear, road friction is created. This friction may contribute to other problems, including loss of balance and front-end misalignment.

When you rotate tires regularly, it decreases the amount of work it takes for the vehicle to drive. When tire wear is spread evenly, vehicle pull and road friction are alleviated and traction and stability are increased. All these factors help the engine to run more smoothly and efficiently, decreasing the amount of gas it takes to propel the car. Less gas used equates to better overall gas mileage for the vehicle.

Money can be saved in so many ways when regular tire rotation is performed. All of the above points can contribute to more money spent over the long run for the life of your car. When you rotate tires approximately every 7,500 miles, you'll help to avoid costly mechanical repairs, save money on gas and on the purchase of new tires, by extending the life of your current tires as much as possible.